NEW YORK — An analysis of newly uncovered documents shows the sugar industry began funding research that cast doubt on sugar’s role in heart disease — in part by pointing the finger at fat — as early as the 1960s.

A sugar industry group paid Harvard researchers to write an article published by a prominent medical journal in 1967 that concluded that reducing cholesterol and saturated fat was the only dietary intervention to prevent heart disease.

While scientists are still working to understand links between diet and heart disease, concern has shifted in recent years to sugar and carbohydrates, and away from fat.

The documents are detailed in a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, and is the latest evidence showing how food makers influence nutrition science.